/t͡ʃaɪv/
OriginFrom Middle English chive~cyve, from Old French chive~cive, from Latin cēpa (“onion”).
- A perennial plant, Allium schoenoprasum, related to the onion.
- attributive, in-pluralThe leaves of this plant used as a herb.
“Chive herb. (attributive use)”
“What a splendid pie, pizza-pizza pie / Every minute, every second, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy / Pepperoni and green peppers, mushrooms, olive, chives”
- Trinidad-and-Tobago, dialectalThe spring onion; the green onion; the scallion.
- A piece cut off; sliver.
- obsoleteThe filament which supports the anther of a flower; stamen, especially of saffron.
“1577, Raphael Holinshed et al., The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Ireland, London: John Hunne, Book 3, Chapter 14, “Of English Saffron,”
[…] in the place wher he bled, Saffron was after found ”
“[…] to abate, and allay the fulnesse of red, we doe not see white vsed (as a colour too remote) but rather yellow, and that so farre-forth as some doe grinde a Chiue of Saffron with Vermillion, to mak”
“The chiues or threds in the middle of the floure are ſometimes of a reddiſh, or of a blackiſh colour.”
- A knife.
“For when that he hath nubbed as, / And our friends tip him no cole, / He takes his chive and cuts us down, / And tips us into a hole.”
“None of us know'd then—though the grabbing at Nan Turner's came off that very night—as Polly was the cause o' that 'ere, till it vos blown here at the Gate by some of the coves. Vell, she nammused, as”
“On the Boxing Day after I came out I got stabbed in the chest by a pal of mine who had done a schooling. We was out with one another all the day getting drunk, so he took a liberty with me, and I land”
- A file.
- A saw.
- To stab.
“Adieu to Haul-Cly, adieu to stopping Coaches, and adieu to all the hurry-scurry of Foot-Scampering, filing, chiving, milling, and sneaking[…]”
“He was as good a man as Jacky at any weapon that could be named, and if Jacky were game for a chiving (stabbing) match, he (Kavanagh) was ready for him.”
“After the place got well where I was chived, me and another screwed a place at Stoke Newington”
- To cut.
Formschives(plural) · cive(alternative) · chithe(alternative) · chire(alternative) · chieve(alternative) · chife(alternative) · chiv(alternative) · chives(present, singular, third-person) · chiving(participle, present) · chived(participle, past) · chived(past)